4 - Using HTTP for Data Access

In Chapter 3, I explained how you can use ADO to access XML data in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. This approach is useful when you’re building business components that need to retrieve data in XML format while providing additional business processing services. You can make data available through an ASP-based Web site by calling these components from the ASP files themselves.

An alternative approach to publishing data for intranet- and Internet-based applications is to use the HTTP publishing functionality provided in SQL Server 2000. This way, you can make XML data available through a Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) virtual directory in the same way a conventional Web site is published. The ability to publish data over HTTP allows you to build highly data-centric Web sites easily and quickly, with much less code than an ASP application would require. XSL style sheets can be applied to the XML data to transform it to HTML for browser-based clients or into other formats such as Wireless Markup Language (WML) for Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)–enabled cell phones. Alternatively, both internal applications and trading partners could simply retrieve the data as XML by making an HTTP request.

Northwind Traders could take advantage of this capability by publishing product data on the Internet. Customers could then browse the catalog in HTML format or even download it as XML to import into their own systems. In addition, Northwind Traders employees could use an intranet-based application to view order data by simply browsing the database virtual directory.



Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2000 With Xml
Programming Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2000 with XML (Pro-Developer)
ISBN: 0735613699
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 89

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